Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck formed the basis
of today's developmental approach.
Life-course theories - view criminality as a
dynamic process, influenced by a multitude of
individual characteristics, traits, and social
experiences. As people travel through the life
course, they are constantly bombarded by
changing perceptions and experiences, and as a
result their behavior changes direction, sometimes
for the better and sometimes for the worse.
Problem behavior syndrome (PBS) - crime is one
among a group of interrelated antisocial
behaviors that cluster together and typically
involve family dysfunction, sexual and physical
abuse, substance abuse, smoking, precocious
sexuality and early pregnancy, educational
underachievement, suicide attempts, sensation
seeking, and unemployment. The more risk
factors that individuals suffer, the greater the
likelihood that they will engage in antisocial
behaviors; and the more they engage in
antisocial behaviors, the more likely they are to
develop risk factors.
People who have a long and varied criminal
career are more likely than others to die early and
to have greater than average mortality rates.
Adolescent-limited offenders may be considered "typical teenagers" who
get into minor scrapes and engage in what might be considered
rebellious teenage behavior with their friends.34 As they reach their
midteens, adolescent-limited delinquents begin to mimic the antisocial
behavior of more troubled teens, only to reduce the frequency of their
offending as they mature to around age 18.
life-course persisters who begin their offending career at a very early
age and continue to offend well into adulthood. They display social and
personal dysfunctions, including lower-than-average verbal ability,
reasoning skills, learning ability, and school achievement.
Late bloomers - These persisters actually stay out of trouble in adolescence until late in
their teenage years and then become violent chronic persisters. kids who started later in
delinquency were actually the ones more likely to get involved in adult offending!
Age-Graded Theory - Robert Sampson and John Laub.
discrete factors influence people at different stages of their
development, and, therefore, the propensity to commit
crimes is neither stable nor unyielding.
Social capital - positive
relations with individuals
and institutions that are
life-sustaining. people
who fail to accumulate
social capital are more
likely to commit criminal
acts.
criminal careers are a dynamic process in which an important
life event can (1) produce a transition in the life course and (2)
change the direction of a person's life-course trajectory. They
refer to these as important life events as turning points. Two
critical turning points are marriage and career.
children who grow up in two-parent families
are more likely to have happier marriages
themselves than children who are the product
of divorced or never-married parents. 40–50
percent of first marriages, 67 percent of second
marriages, and 74 percent of third marriages
end in divorce.
latent trait theories (which are also called
propensity theories ) believe that human
development is controlled by a "master trait,"
present at birth or soon after, that, in the case of
criminals, endows them with an increased
propensity to commit crime.
A number of people in the population
have a personal attribute or
characteristic that controls their
inclination or propensity to commit
crimes. This disposition, or latent trait ,
may be either present at birth or
established early in life, and it can
remain stable over time. Suspected
latent traits include defective intelligence,
damaged or impulsive personality,
genetic abnormalities, the
physical-chemical functioning of the
brain, and environmental influences on
brain function, such as drugs, chemicals,
and injuries.
Whereas the propensity to
commit crime is stable, the
opportunity to commit crime
fluctuates over time. As a
result, most people age out
of crime. As they mature
and develop, there are
simply fewer opportunities
to commit crimes and
greater inducements to
remain "straight."
General theory of crime - Michael Gottfredson and Travis
Hirschi link the propensity to commit crime to two latent
traits: an impulsive personality and a lack of self-control.
They have a here-andnow orientation and refuse to work
for distant goals; they lack diligence, tenacity, and
persistence. People lacking self-control tend to be
adventure-some, active, physical, and self-centered. As
they mature, they often have unstable marriages, jobs, and
friendships. They are also more likely to engage in
dangerous behaviors such as drinking, smoking, and
reckless driving. All of these behaviors are associated with
criminality
parents who
themselves
manifest low-self
control are the
ones most likely to
use damaging and
inappropriate
supervision and
punishment
mechanisms, such
as corporal
punishment.
Children who suffer anoxia (oxygen starvation)
during the birthing process are the ones most likely
to lack self-control later in life, which suggests that
impulsivity may have a biological basis
the male crime rate is higher than the female
crime rate because males have lower levels of
self-control.
Misreads human nature. According to
Francis Cullen, John Paul Wright, and
Mitchell Chamlin, the GTC makes flawed
assumptions about human character. It
assumes that people are essentially selfish,
self-serving, and hedonistic and must
therefore be controlled, lest they gratify
themselves at the expense of others.
Because criminality and
other social problems are
linked, early prevention
efforts that reduce
delinquency will probably
also reduce alcohol abuse,
drunk driving, drug abuse,
sexual promiscuity, and
family violence.
The factors that produce crime and delinquency at one
point in the life cycle may not be relevant at another; as
people mature, the social, physical, and environmental
influences on their behavior are transformed.
Pathways to crime
Authority conflict pathway
- begins at an early age
with stubborn behavior.
This leads to defiance
(doing things one's own
way, disobedience) and
then to authority avoidance
(staying out late, truancy,
running away).
Covert pathway - begins with minor,
underhanded behavior (lying, shoplifting)
that leads to property damage (setting
nuisance fires, damaging property). This
behavior eventually escalates to more
serious forms of criminality, ranging from
joyriding, pocket picking, larceny, and
fencing stolen goods, to passing bad
checks, using stolen credit cards,
stealing cars, dealing drugs, and
breaking and entering.
Overt pathway - escalates to
aggressive acts, beginning with
aggression (annoying others, bullying),
leading to physical (and gang) fighting
and then to violence (attacking
someone, forced theft).
Offense specialisation - Some
offenders may specialize in the short
term but engage in a wider variety of
offenses when presented with
opportunities to commit crime.
The seeds of a criminal career are planted early in
life and that the early onset of antisocial behavior
strongly predicts later and more serious criminality.
the earlier the onset of criminality, the more frequent,
varied, and sustained the criminal career.
programs are now employing multidimensional
strategies and are aimed at targeting children in
preschool through the early elementary grades
to alter the direction of their life course. Many of
the most successful programs are aimed at
strengthening children's social-emotional
competence and positive coping skills and
suppressing the development of antisocial,
aggressive behavior.